"In your cage, mushroom. Go on." Li Jun said, tossing Tai Yang into the cage once again.
'That's the second time he's called me a mushroom. Does he think I'm a fungus?' The words appeared above Tai Yang's head as Li Jun spoke to seal the cage. Li Jun raised a brow.
"You have a mushroom on your body, idiot. It's not that deep."
'You have a big head on your neck, but I'm not calling you that.' Tai Yang thought. No sooner than he did, Li Jun looked livid and started to open the cage.
Tai Yang squeaked and held it shut like he'd done the night before.
"I DO NOT HAVE A BIG HEAD!"
"Yes! You don't, not at all!" Tai Yang said, although the words above him said, 'Of course that's not true! It's so big I could probably see it from my Earth, you aggressive lunatic! My goodness, stop yanking the bars, my joints will pop, you crazy man! Who asked you to have gorilla strength?'
Li Jun gasped. He grabbed Tai Yang's arms to pry them off the bars. "Your thoughts are becoming way too daring! Foolish mortal! Do you know who you're speaking to?!"
"I didn't speak!"
Li Jun paused. 'Right... Those are his private thoughts. I shouldn't even be looking at them.'
"That is true." He looked at the cage. "Ji Ru hasn't taken a look at it." He stopped yanking at the bars.
"I'm sorry about my thoughts, they're very defensive and confrontational."
Li Jun raised a brow. "What comes out of your mouth, not so much, hey?"
Tai Yang nodded. 'I'm sorry.'
Li Jun glanced at the words and then at Tai Yang. 'Whoa. He really looks remorseful.'
Feeling slightly guilty, Li Jun looked away as he pulled out his arms. "Whatever. Don't think about the size of my head again. It's not big. I measured it. The circumference is only one centimeter larger than Li Wei's. Next time you think about it, I'll execute you." He crossed his arms.
'So he's self-conscious about his head.'
"I'm not! I'm literally the most handsome man in all the land! My body proportions are perfection incarnate. Not a wrinkle on my skin or a callous on my hands. Look at the placement of the little beauty mark to the side of my left eye, it's magnificent. My hair is silkier than the finest of silk and my eyes are like delectable pools of honey."
'And your head is just a little bigger than the average man.' Tai Yang thought as he nodded enthusiastically along to Li Jun's monologue.
Li Jun's eye twitched. "WHY YOU LITTLE-"
There was a knock at the door. Li Jun looked at it. "That's the third time now." He huffed and sealed the cage. According to his mental map, he'd seen earlier that Li Wei and Ji Ru were taking a walk down the passage. Why was he surprised that they'd decided to stop by? Of course Ji Ru would want to shove his muzzle around.
"What is it now?"
"Ji Ru brought Tai Yang night-robes, and some milk and honey to help him sleep." Ji Ru nodded with shiny eyes as Li Wei spoke, and his tail wagged about behind him. He was holding neatly folded robes while Li Wei held a tray of oatmeal cookies with a pot of hot milk and honey.
Li Jun clicked his tongue. "He has his pills to sleep and the clothes on his back. Don't spoil him. Shoo, shoo." He waved his hand in annoyance at his brother-in-law's face. Ji Ru's tail stopped wagging and his eyes became a daunting puppy-dog stare.
"Don't be a jackass, Ji Ru went through all this effort. And he needs to look at the cage too." Li Wei said, forcefully shoving the door open and pulling his significant other in too. Li Jun rolled his eyes. "How's your arm?" He asked as Ji Ru walked ahead to the cage.
Li Wei looked at him discreetly. "Healed. Ji Ru told me what happened. Maybe you aren't wrong about him being strange after all." Li Jun nodded. "Hopefully we'll be able to make sense of it in the near future."
"Tai Yang! Are you getting ready for bed?" Ji Ru asked cheerily, trying not to show discontent for the cage Tai Yang was stuck in. Still, his brown eyes ran along the bars in clear disapproval. Li Jun had told him about the spell on the cage many years ago, but since Li Jun didn't have anyone in the cage, he hadn't asked Ji Ru to take a look at it or remove it.
'I should before prince Li Jun kills me.' Tai Yang thought.
"That spell needs to go before I really do kill him. He has very strange thoughts." Li Jun scowled, turning his attention from Tai Yang's thoughts to Ji Ru.
Ji Ru tilted his head and handed Li Wei the clothes. "May I go in, your majesty?" He asked Li Jun.
Li Jun nodded and commanded the cage to open.
'At least this prison cell is spacious.' Ji Ru thought as he entered the cage.
'That, I can't deny. The bed is really comfortable too.' Tai Yang thought.
"How's your back doing?" Ji Ru asked.
"Much better." Tai Yang said. 'You're a lifesaver.'
'Oh thank the Heavens. I was really worried about you. We're both really scrawny. If I were mortal and had gotten hit, I'm sure I would have simply died, but you're okay. I'm relieved.' Ji Ru thought as he smiled. "That's good. Anyway, let me look around."
"Master, I'm shifting, if that's okay? I'll try to sniff out the original casting area of the spell." Ji Ru said, looking at Li Wei through the bars.
"Yes, my love." He replied. "Tai Yang, here. Ji Ru got you some milk. It helps you relax, I hear." Li Wei said, putting the items through the smaller cage opening.
"Oh, thank you." Tai Yang said. 'Ji Ru is too kind.'
While they spoke, Ji Ru reached up to his neck and unbuckled the collar he was wearing. Tai Yang turned to him.
"Brace yourself, Tai Yang, I'm really adorable as a wolf." Ji Ru said. Before Tai Yang could speak, in a flash of cool blue, Ji Ru had changed into a black wolf. "Whoa!" Tai Yang said, unable to stop himself.
Ji Ru really was adorable! His eyes were a stunning explosion of blues, and his fur was incredibly shiny and soft-looking.
Ji Ru as a human had strikingly endearing features, but as a wolf, he was even more loveable.
'Oh my, the floof.' Tai Yang thought with wide eyes. Ji Ru wasn't very big, but from what he knew, black wolves were supposed to be bigger than grey wolves.
Yet, he was sure that if he picked Ji Ru up he wouldn't have trouble carrying him at all, being the size he was.
'Your eyes are so blue...' Tai Yang thought.
'Yep, probably 'cause my aura is usually blue.' Ji Ru thought.
'I really want to touch your fur. It looks so soft.'
'Go ahead, I'm so floofy. My ears, my ears! It's so soothing.'
"Hey, imbeciles, I need to sleep." Li Jun snapped. Li Wei shoved him.
Not needing to be told twice, Ji Ru jolted and started to look around with his glowing eyes. After taking a few steps forward, he started to sniff the ground and the air. In the meantime Tai Yang wondered where the collar Ji Ru was holding had gone. His eyes flicked around the floor in search of it.
'This is strange.'
"What is?" Li Jun asked. Ji Ru turned to him. 'The original spell is long gone.'
Li Jun's brows knitted in response to that. "Gone? Then why can I still see your thoughts?"
'I'm not sure... There is something like an aura emanating off the cage, it's not a dark aura... but it's certainly not from a spell that was cast. The aura is separate from the spells you used on the cage too.'
Li Wei and Li Jun looked at each other in confusion.
"Does it have a colour?" Li Wei asked.
Ji Ru shook his head. 'It's like fog.' He looked upward. 'It doesn't go beyond the cage, but it's swirling around every bar.'
Tai Yang fiddled with his hands, not knowing what was happening.
"Is it harmful?" Li Wei asked.
'I can't give you a concise answer. It seems harmless... But I haven't seen anything like it before, so I can't be sure.'
Li Jun crossed his arms. "This is interesting."
'For you! I have to stay in this thing! What if the cage is possessed? If magic exists, then witches, and wizards and spooks must exist on this planet!' Tai Yang thought.
Li Jun clicked his tongue.
"Nobody calls Cultivators by the terms witches or wizards anymore, unless they're practically one-foot-in-the-grave old. And no Netherworlds can enter my castle, so stop your whining."
"Netherworlds?" Tai Yang blinked a few times and looked at Ji Ru who had turned back into his mostly human self. It seemed that when Ji Ru transformed, his clothes had stayed on him. The collar must have stayed with him somehow too, because Ji Ru was holding it. The said wolf put his collar back on and glanced at Tai Yang with a lopsided smile.
"There's something like what humans call 'hell' here. No mortal or immortal can find it without having bordered between life and death and living. It's called the Netherworld and is the only thing you and I have never researched."
Tai Yang frowned. "Why?"
"It's against the law in the Land of the Living." Li Wei said.
'The Land of the Living... Who came up with such a clichéd name?' he thought. Ji Ru snickered and shrugged.
"Rules had to be made. The Infernal King is very intelligent and strategic. If humans aren't careful, and get to curious, the Netherworlds will trick them in their pursuit of answers and eat their souls. After that, they recruit the dead person into the Netherworld." Li Wei said.
"And how pertinent. You'd have to have bordered between life and death and survived in order to find the Netherworld. That refers to a very specific group of individuals." Li Jun said.
"Familiars?" Tai Yang asked hesitantly after a moment of thought. Everyone nodded.
"The reason they're targeted specifically is because they're connected to fully-fledged immortals. The souls of full-fledged immortals give Netherworlds more power. If a Netherworld eats five, they can be returned to the Land of the Living. That's all we know about it." Li Wei said.
"So... full-fledged immortals would most-likely go after their familiar because they care about them, and the Netherworlds use that to their advantage?"
"Yep, they suddenly appear and tell you that they can take you to your familiar, and that you could be with them forever at a price." Ji Ru said. Li Jun exhaled.
"Anyway, the point is that they can't get into this castle." He looked at the cage. "This really is the safest place for you to be, so I think I'll continue keeping you there. If anything happens, we'll make other arrangements." He said. Before Ji Ru could open his mouth, Li Jun lifted a finger. "That's not up for discussion."
Li Wei sighed. "Is there nothing that can be done Ji Ru?"
Ji Ru hummed. "I'll observe it a bit more. Hopefully I can come up with something."
"You can start once Xiao Xia leaves."
Ji Ru nodded. "Yes, your majesty. That is fine."
"Well, if that's all, I want to sleep. Go away." Li Jun said. Ji Ru smiled sheepishly as Li Wei glared at Li Jun. "Rude."
"Sweet dreams Tai Yang. I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"You too. Thank you for the milk." Tai Yang said. "Of course." Ji Ru smiled and gave him a brief hug.
He left the cage, which Li Jun promptly sealed after making good on his statement that morning. Once the medicine box was out, the cage was sealed and the two night visitors were gone, Li Jun let out a long sigh.
He looked at Tai Yang with crossed arms.
"You're going to have the previous Tai Yang's knowledge passed to you. You should figure out how to remove whatever thing there is on that cage. That will help you grow as a Cultivator."
'But Ji Ru couldn't. How can I?' He thought. Li Jun clicked his tongue. "I've never seen someone with such low self-esteem. Fix it."
'Maybe if you didn't call me a fool, moron, and mushroom all the time, I wouldn't need to.'
Li Jun rolled his eyes. "You remind me of a mushroom. You stand around, all quiet-like, but everyone who sees you knows instantly that you're weird even without you speaking.' He let out a yawn and stretched.
"Get to bed. We have a tiring two days ahead." Li Jun said, going over to the door leading to his closet. Tai Yang sighed to himself picked up the clothes Ji Ru had brought.
'I need to escape soon. But how?'
He undid his sash and removed his robes behind the divider. 'Those things they said about the Netherworld... Perhaps I could make a deal with them, so they could return me to Earth 72.'
The clothes were silky on his skin as he changed into them, still thinking. 'That could definitely work... But if they can't get into the castle then I need to get out of the castle.'
As he perused even deeper, a plan began to forge in his mind.
'I'll make it out of here, no matter what. Bed-Jiejie is waiting.'